SAMENA Telecom Leaders’ Summit 2018 to be held in Dubai in partnership with Huawei for the 5th consecutive year

Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East

April 24, 2018

Dubai -

The SAMENA Telecommunications Council and Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, are set to host the annual Telecom Leaders’ Summit in Dubai on 3 May, 2018. Held under the theme “Building the Digital Economy of the Middle East”, the one-day event is a platform for private and government sector leaders in the telecommunications sector to discuss opportunities and challenges the industry faces.

The summit’s aim is to enable the framing of practicable ICT strategies, to help reap maximum, long-term socio-economic benefit through a well-defined digital agenda and adoption of national and sector-specific digitization policies. The event will encourage participants to discuss policies that can drive progress of telecom sector governance and regulation in the region to support the evolving scope, dynamics, and needs of the telecommunications industry, while ensuring its path to growth and sustainability.

“This is a transformative time in the ICT industry,” said Bocar BA, CEO of SAMENA Telecommunications Council. “As the Middle East continues on its march towards digital transformation, it is vital for governments and telecommunications leaders to align on their visions and create a roadmap that will enable the region to reap the full benefits of digitalization. We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei once gain to organize the summit and hope that all participants will walk away from the event with valuable insights on how to move forward in these exciting times.”

On the sidelines of the SAMENA Telecom Leader’s Summit, Huawei will organize three sub-forums, with the first “5G is Now..” focusing on the imminent arrival of 5G and its support to national transformation plans across the region, in addition to the big role 5G will play in the digital transformation journey. The 5G era is growing close, and preparation is necessary to build up network spectrum, transport, sites and business cases, in order to facilitate its approach. Middle East operators and government agencies must work to support spectrum neutrality, use test-driven development to construct Mobile Broadband networks, in order to rollout 5G as fast as possible. The sub-forum will be an opportunity for Huawei and other ICT leaders to discuss how to address remaining challenges and opportunities on the road to 5G.

Huawei will also launch the latest edition of its annual Global Connectivity Index (GCI), a global study that benchmarks where a country stands within its journey to connectivity, and aims to deliver insightful research for governments looking to push forth a digital economy transformation. The 2018 edition of GCI will feature 80 countries, including several in the Middle East, and provides a comprehensive and objective assessment of each country’s connectivity from both a national and business perspective, as well as assessing the current status, future trends, and challenges associated with digital transformation. Huawei’s third sub-forum will focus on All-Cloud Transformation in the 5G era.

“As ICT becomes a general purpose technology that improves lives of consumers and increases efficiency of businesses, ICT infrastructure becomes a key to unlocking economic growth and 5G is the main driver of this transformation,” said Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East. “Huawei is ushering in the 5G era by laying the groundwork for new networks, developing 5G commercial devices, and nurturing an ecosystem of telco organizations, vendors, and consumers prepared to seize new opportunities. The arrival of 5G will support national plans and accelerate digital transformation, and the SAMENA conference is a great occasion to gather ICT industry leaders to discuss challenges and opportunities on the road to 5G.”